ADDRESS, PLANNING AND HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION ON

OPENING SECTIONS OF THE NORTHEASTERN EXPRESS

WAY AND BALTIMORE BELTWAY

BALTIMORE

December 17, 1960

... I would like to talk about creating a climate, an atmosphere
in which the highway and other transportation facilities can be used
as a planning tool. I would like to talk about the creation of ma-
chinery that will permit economic growth and development of an
adequate transportation system to move forward together so that a
pattern of orderly progress will accrue to our cities, our counties and
our State.

We must realize that the day is gone when a highway is built solely
on the determination of traffic counts or built only because conges-
tion develops on another facility. The highway builder and the plan-
ner must work together. I mean exactly that—work together. Work-
ing together does not mean the private preparation of design by one
side, then submitted to the other with a spirit of "take it or leave
it. " There must be genuine collaboration, principally an agreement
as to goals. The planner and the highway builder have the same
broad goal—that of providing physical facilities that will meet the
needs and wants of the people. The highway builder seeks to pro-
vide a circulation system to move people and goods, to serve the
functional and economic needs of the population. The planners seek
the best possible arrangement of residential areas, business centers,
factory areas, open spaces, parks, schools, utilities and the like. With
both the highway builder and the planner seeking the same general
goal, there is no reason for their methods to conflict. Neither should
their timing... Through modern landscaping methods, the high-
way builder can make the median strip and all of the highway right
of way beautiful.... For a people who spends millions of dollars
a year on keeping our automobiles beautiful, I think we could care
more about what we see from our car windows. Here is indeed a
field ripe for coordination between highway builders and planners.
Here is where the spacing of interchanges can be properly interlaced
with various elements of urban-type development. Here is a. chance
for the highway builder and the planner, be he a county planner or
a city planner, to get together to bring a halt to urban sprawl.

I am happy to say that our State Roads Commission is moving in

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